Pike will spawn in early spring, soon after ice leaves the lakes, when the water temperature is at least 40 degrees, according to "The Inland Fishes of New York State," by C. Lavette Smith.

They begin moving toward their spawning areas before this, while open water is starting to appear along the shoreline of lakes. Some of the best pike fishing happens while creeks are running high with snow melt.

Boiling this down, it's now time for pike fishing.

There will be pretty good pike fishing both before and after their spawn, which happens in swamps and backwaters alongside creeks.

In the Allegheny River, pike can often be found near the mouths of tributary creeks. This is along their route to, and from, spawning areas.

I have enjoyed good pike fishing near the mouths of Conewango Creek and Brokenstraw Creek, in Warren County. I expect that it might be just as good near the mouth of French Creek, and in that creek near the mouths of its tributaries.

Before it was removed, the low head dam on Conewango Creek, in Warren, was one of the best pike fisheries in this corner of the state. Dams on any creek that hold pike might be good places to fish for pike during spring.

Pike are not fond of swift current. Of course, they must pass through it on their way to spawning areas.

Along the way, they will pause at pockets of calm water. Coves are especially good places to fish for pike. These places might be too shallow for fishing normally, or might even be dry, but during the usually higher spring flows coves are great places to fish.

Pike will strike a variety of artificial lures. Often they are very fussy. They will not strike until you use just the right lure and just the right color.

During a float-fishing trip on the Cuyahoga River, in Ohio, a friend and I kept switching lures all of the way to the downstream end of our float, and during the return trip until my partner snapped a black Flatfish onto his line. Luckily, I had one just like it. We smacked the pike all of the way back to our truck. Maybe pike would have hit some other lure, but we must have tried at least 50 lures that the pike refused to strike.

If you plan to use artificial lures, I suggest that you carry a good selection of stick baits, spoons, large spinners, banana baits and a few surface lures. Your color selection should include red, orange, yellow, chartreuse, green, gold and silver, or mostly combinations of those colors.

Usually, we use artificial lures when we fish in a boat and do a lot of moving. And, often, while still fishing from shore, I will use a live minnow on one rig, and cast artificial lures on another.

Rarely will hungry pike pass up a lively minnow. Dead minnows also will work, but I prefer lively minnows, 5 inches to 7 inches in length.

Minnows should be fished under bobbers in most situations. This allows the minnow to move around, which increases the odds of it being seen by pike. Also, being suspended under a bobber makes a bait highly visible.

If the area you fish has some sort of wood cover, brush, fallen tree tops or logs, place your bait close to that cover. However, often larger pike are hooked away from cover. Perhaps they feel no need of cover, being a top-end predator.

For years, serious pike anglers have debated the merits of steel leaders. Steel leaders will seldom be cut by the sharp teeth of a pike. But pike can be line-shy.

Now, we have better options such as Cortland Toothy Critter and other metallic leader materials that can be tied.

Medium to medium-heavy rods and matching reels are well-suited to pike fishing. Most pike caught in our area are fewer than 30 inches in length, but some grow a lot bigger. A 35-pound pike was caught at the Allegheny Reservoir.

If you are looking for big pike, the Allegheny Reservoir is the top water in this area. Presque Isle Bay probably ranks second.

Pike are fabulous sport on fly rods. For the past few years, Jim Simonelli and I have made it a point to fly fish for pike in the spring. We never have clobbered the pike this way, but on a fly rod it does not take many pike, or large pike, to make for a very fun day of fishing. Simonelli already has caught pike this spring on streamers, which are the only type of flies that make sense for pike fishing, other than surface flies such as poppers.

Part of the fun has been devising our own pike streamer patterns. These usually are tied with a special leader to minimize cut-offs. Pike have very sharp teeth that have twice sent me to an emergency room.

How much more sporting can a fish be than one that might put you in the hospital?